Importance of mid-term grades for transfer students

<p>D1 has applied as a transfer. She had a 3.5 first semester GPA from a top-tier private university. However, her mid-term grades are a bit below this. She usally "closes strong" for the semester grades but is worried about the weight put on the mid-terms. Can the W&M Admission person on CC comment on this or a knowledgeable person out there in CC land. Her high school grades, test scores, and ECs are excellent.</p>

<p>word to this. I just pulled a 4.02/4.33 at Cornell my first semester, but I’m not doing too great this semester due to pledging. How problematic will this be?</p>

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<p>We do consider mid-year grades considerably as they are a continuation of your record. Given that your daughter is a freshman, mid-term grades are important because we would have a small college record on which to render a decision. However, keep in mind that we’re aware that some colleges are more challenging than others and students who have a little below a 3.5 at a top-flight school are considered within the context of their environment.</p>

Are mid term reports very important for college transfer? If so, if someone improves their GPA from first semester grades to a very high GPA in mid term report, does this boost the application and is the improvement looked at extensively?

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@Transfer0610 If you have a question I would recommend emailing admissions directly as it seems they aren’t really active that much on College Confidential anymore, but on the Admit It! Blog they state the following:

"The answer is simple; mid-semester grades are helpful as we make decisions, especially on tough cases. In our transfer applicant process, college transcripts are paramount. Courses taken, credit loads, grades, grade trends and academic hiccups all weigh heavily on our decision-making process. With transfer applicants, sometimes we have only one completed semester of college-level course work to consider. Mid-semester grades at least provide additional academic history.

Mid-semester grades aren’t the be all and end all of your application but they’re definitely something that can work for or against you. We promise we wouldn’t ask you to submit something if we didn’t find it useful in evaluating your application."

http://wmblogs.wm.edu/admiss/time-out-for-transfers-why-do-we-request-mid-semester-grades/

Thank you. That helps alot.